No Spoilers
Webtoons are things that I am not the most familiar with. It is a world I knew existed but the ones I had read most of the time feel flat. Added with a strange art and writing style they weren’t exactly something that would itch my Manga scratch. Then while listening to Trash Taste Podcast, Connor, one of the bois was referred to an erotic take known as Miss Mystic. Figuring I to would give it a go, I found the work, bookmarked it for post Domestic Girlfriend, and over five days read it from start to finish. And Jesus Fucking Christ what a ride that was.
So right away I want to set the tone, this is an NSFW erotic manhwa that has a heavy emphasis on sex random and often. It makes this series kinda hard to get into since right away you are thrown into this world that everyone is fucking someone and any chance they get. It reminded me back in the day when I wrote World Of Warcraft fanfic, I was a horny teenager and the ideal of boning an elf in Dalaran was the only thing on my mind. That is one thing it could have trimmed upon, you could take out 60% of the sex scenes and not lose any of the heart-wrenching moments. But it didn’t, so get used to looking at a lot of banging and kink-shaming.
The story follows Taepyung, A Korean businessman that has been with his high school sweetheart, Na-Yeon for years. However, a new daily task has made its way into his life. Reaching the subway at a certain time to stand in front of a woman who is out of this worldly gorgeous. Fantasying in his head he sheds the girlfriend he has back home and mentally plays out all the things he would love to do to the one in front of him, until one day, an untimely accident put him on a path that will change his life forever.
So I thought about this a lot and decide that for this story I am not going to break down the events and discuss them throughout the synopsis. I am going straight to what I liked and hated about this story and try to give enough to see if maybe it would be an interest to any reader. So right off I want to start with the story. It is what both makes and breaks this tale. As I mentioned earlier the driving plotline for this story is sex. Sex between friends and strangers, affairs, flipping emotions on one another, and sometimes just straight-up boredom fucking. It both makes the story sometimes uncomfortable to read but also leaves you asking “why the fuck is this even happening?” But having a literal porn plot honestly degrades the fascinating and downright terrifying events that are playing out between the scenes.
This was something I felt the delivery did well. What seemed subtle at first, weird things happening to Taepyung quickly turn dark, his life and the lives of everyone who has contact with him suddenly became a lot more complicated. What I adored about the delivery is the whole time, as these things are happening you know who is doing it but you don’t know-how. You find yourself cheering for certain characters, shitting on Taepyung for the choices he is making. As time and time again he seems to do the wrong thing until he isn’t, and suddenly the narrative flipped completely and everything started to make sense.
The suspense in the delivery is the real winner here. Not to toot my own horn but I am rarely surprised where a story goes. Rather it comes with movies or books usually by the end there are four or so ways I could go, it goes one of those ways, I leave. This is why stories like Your Lie In April which I cherish. One knows what is going to happen right away, but it doesn’t make it any easier. But when it comes to Miss Mystic, I found myself going from chapter to chapter not knowing what the FUCK was going on. The ending, (not the side story) is also charming, it leaves you with a warm feeling which is nice because three chapters earlier it was making you want to cry. It also has a way to work in the sex, somehow, the more you read. Granted I think most of this was me getting used to it, there is SO much, actually yeah never mind, it was because I was used to it they really should have cut some of that out.
The art was fine enough, where webtoons different from most Manga is the angels if the face and color. Being used to read two or three pages in color then straight black and white it was a strange thing watching something fully in color, even if it wasn’t the most vivid or appealing. You get used to looking at tits and ass but the giant glowing rods that come out from time to time are rather comical. I guess that is how you keep it erotic, and not hentia.
To wrap this up as neat as I can Miss Mystic is a train crash of chaos and witt. A duel between two people fated to be together but at the cost of all they knew. A twist and turn that builds the characters to be loved and hated at varying times throughout the ride. It deserves a read even with the rampant erotic events and it’s something that will stick with me for a while to come.
As the first Web Toon I have reviews I am thrilled it was Miss Mystic, an easy 7/10
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